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3 eCommerce trends for eStores to earn more in 2016

September 28, 2015

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By: Yogita Aggarwal

Blogger and Online Marketing Professional

DreamTechie

Ecommerce has always been one of the most challenging areas of business. There are many good reasons for that: the rules of game are changing rapidly, there were no hundreds years of experience to develop best practices and local markets have to compete with international in a much more intense way.

During the last decade the pace of technology growth have exceeded to such level that it has become a necessity to reconsider the whole business approach one uses for his online store. 2016 is going to be the year of digital transformation and those who are going to catch the wave have good chances to get to the next level for good.

Internet of MeBeing unique to each User has always been a corner stone of Internet philosophy. Some compare online surfing history to a fingerprint: it is special to every person and is never repeated. But only recently the technologies have come to such level that they are able to provide this unique experience to every customer.

And now in the reviving Digital Era one has to use all available tools to make shopping experience special. Gartner report claims that 89% of business leaders consider personalization to be the basis of their strategy in 2016.

Customer expectations are also pretty high. According to Netflix research, modern store or app has only 20-30 seconds to impress the visitor until he makes his purchase decision or leaves the store forever. If it is a returning customer, the time might exceed to a minute or two, which is still very small wiggle room.

This way you better be prepared to provide your customers with personalized experience they deserve.

What should I do in 2016?

If the products you sell can be customized, don’t forget to provide this opportunity. The more time a customer spends on creating his unique product, the more attached he is to it. So there is a better probability of the positive final purchase decision.

In case there is no customization option, try mimic it with providing a wide colour/size range and offers or filters for different type of users.

Use data mining to know as much as possible about your customers. In case there are no enough fields in the basic account functionality of your Magento store, try adding a few additional Customer Attributes like ‘Preferred language’ or ‘Favorite Colour’. The more you know about your target audience and returning customers the easier it would be for you to manipulate their purchase decision.

Digital Platform Shift

If in the previous decade all devices were perceived separately, today we live in the era of digital ecosystem, which means that customers can use a whole lot of devices for shopping online. With introduction of personal gadgets like Apple Watch, the situation with digital platforms has become even more complicated. Besides, there is a huge trend when offline retail companies are pushed to provide some online experience as well in order to achieve services continuity.

To cut a long story short: Modern customer expects your store to provide services from any device he has. And in future this tension is only going to increase.

What should I do in 2016?

Your behavior depends on your budget. If it is reduced to minimum, at least make your Magento store responsive. If you can do more than that, offer your customers a few apps or develop a separate mobile version.

Another interesting trend with personalized devices is the introduction of gamified apps that let customer win extra bonuses and coupons. Such apps are great for standing out from competitors and establishing a strong relationship with your clients (especially young ones).

Outcome Business Model

As Professor of Harvard Theodore Levitt once mentioned: people don’t want to buy quarter-inch drill bits, they want to buy quarter-inch holes. Selling results has always been a good technique, but with recent competition increased and customer attention span decreased, one has much less time to persuade a client that he needs to buy their product. According to E-retailer, the amount of online stores in 2016 is going to increase by 62%. This can be put to better availability of the technology and lower entrance threshold.

Besides, 65% of business leaders see focusing on results rather than features as important part of their strategy. So 2016 will be the right time to reconsider the way you sell things.What should I do in 2016?

Make sure you know why customer should buy your products and that this message is transferred to your clients in an easy to comprehend way.

Introduce some small tests that will help your customers to figure out what kind of product suits them best.

Packages of products that match together for better productivity would help you to increase sales and your customers to save time.

With keeping an eye on these trends you will be able to form a modern and efficient business strategy for your online store and hopefully reach great results in 2016.